meeting january 24, 1975. oscar lopez rivera is a leader, placed a bomb in the restaurant which exploded, killing four people, my husband among them. rob: f al and is a phonetic terror organization, they had been working to free puerto rico from the united states of america, this was their method of doing so. they committed over 100 bombings. tell me how outrageous is it to think that this man is going to be leading a parade in new york city after he bombed a tavern in lower manhattan 40 years ago and killed four people? my feeling is that his being honored by being grand marshal of the parade is an absolute
disgrace and particularly that it is happening in new york where the f a ln had a reign of terror that affected all aspects of life in new york in the 70s and early 80s. for him to be considered a hero is unfathomable. rob: let me correct myself, that he bombed, he was convicted of making the bond that helping put together the bombs, he was not the bomber of the tavern but still a person involved in the organization and helping in that movement. he was convicted of many crimes. at no point was he linked directly to the killing but as one of the leaders of the f al in he certainly in my opinion and the opinion of many should be held responsible as well as a
in the meantime, president obama also commuted the sentence of oscar lopez rivera, who,th as a member of f.a.l.n. was accused of plotting to overthrow the government, during the 70s under lopez rivera, f al and planted more than 130 bombs in various u.s. cities. lopez rivera was never convicted of harming anyone. the left described him as a political prisoner who was wrongly convicted. tucker. tucker: trace gallagher. thanks a lot, trace. obama s clemency makes sure manning will only serve seven years. what kind of message will it send to other soldiers who might feel tempted to reveal other secrets? we are joined by former green beret ben collins. nice to see you. first, the macro question, two clemencies granted on the same day, one for chelsea manning, who betrayed the country, and one for aed puerto rican terrort who sought to wage war against
about this lopez case, as well. his sentence is also likely to be commuted. he is 74 years old, he s served 35 years of a sentence. let me just remind whatever he wanted. he was part of the f al and back in the 1970s and 80s. he proclaimed in front of a judge, a i am an enemy of the u.s. government. he was fighting for freedom for puerto rico. one of the many things they did was the bombing of the tavern down and the wall street area where four people lost their lives. they were killed in a scene that was echoed years later on 9/11 and many ways. it was considered the first terrorist attack on wall street. why would this person s sentence be up for commutation? well, i am not sure i know the answer. and i will speculate. look, this was a very bad guy. more than 200 attacks in the 70s in 80s. the clintons tried to spring him
administration. but he refused to sign a document that would have expressed remorse. this was a very hard-core terrorist. now, why was he released? i would speculate that this might be the last shoe to drop in the normalization sellout to castro. the f al and was not just sort of a puerto rican independence terrorist group, after all, puerto rico has had referenda on the issue. but he was also the group was also, like just about all the other bad guys in the western hemisphere, supported by and close to the castro regime. so, this could be, who knows, we saw just a few days ago, a change in policy, cuban immigration. this could have been the last payback. what did we get in return? to zero. a lot of people would like him